Date: September 27, 2002

Time: sometime in the evening to sometime the next day

(I was there from 9:45 p.m. to 5:15 a.m.)

Participants: 7

Girls present against their will: 4

Systems refusing to work: 2

Systems Fixed: 1

Fire Hazards Violated: 83

Shawn, our gracious host, put had his residence turned into the single biggest fire hazard on the east coast and was sucking current out of his outlets like crazy. It was good to be around people who appreciated good hardware and a well-built system. Through it all I learned a few things.

• I cannot land a damned helicopter in Operation Flashpoint for the life of me. It's better for me to just eject and land on the island while sacrificing the chopper. Who knew landing a helicopter was complicated?
• Similarly, when piloting a ship to an island, it's best not to ram up the shore at full speed and attempt to jump out. Surprisingly you end up DYING.
• If you're playing the Black Hawk Down mission for OpFlash, and a man with no weapons comes running up to you seemingly flailing for help, do not shoot him. That would be bad. JerryO ended our mission by filling the pilot with lead.
• If you do anything that results in you dying before the mission even gets underway, expect to be beaten down by people because you're forcing them to sit through the opening sequence again. We were nice that evening, but other people might not be.
• Dell designs their cases with intricate locking mechanisms to keep even the most stalwart of souls from penetrating them. These damned things are like puzzles - which isn't much help when you're trying to fix someone's system. I really don't need more reasons to kill that Dell kid, but they keep coming.
• When at a LAN party and the action dies down, don't be thwarted! Go online and find friends from college to play Warcraft III with. The gaming MUST GO ON.
• Discussing the differences between NTFS and FAT file systems is a sure way to get bitches.

You can see larger pictures by clicking on the ones here,

but be warned that the quality isn't very good since I'm a

n00b at using my camera.

BJ is all action until a file in his WinXP system directory is corrupted and he's put out of commission. Shawn takes a picture of the backbone he's set up...	...and I do the same. The man has more CAT-5 at his place than Cisco. I shoulda taken a picture of him cutting some custom-length cabling out of his spool from hell. I was scared.
Jerry gets his ass handed to him while practicing OpFlash in the single player missions. But later, he and Shawn would go on to personally and brutally rape each and every one of us. No KY was utilized. While we were asking "How do you reload?" they were doing fly-bys on choppers, riddling the ground with bullets, and commanding AI armies to destroy us.	The general is STILL training. Yes, we actually had some girls here. Dennis' wonders what the hell she's going to do to pass the time. If you look closely, you can see a faint circle around a speaker left of JerryO's head. That was my rear left speaker - yes, I brought the 4.1 digital setup.
The AC was constantly going because of the number of systems and monitors that were heating the place up. My case towers above all others - it's been known to devour smaller cases on occasion. Also shown here is the Dell system that was sealed off by ancient magics, preventing us from opening it until we broke the hex.	People chill as a game of OpFlash is being set up. The TV is on to keep the girls entertained, but they fall asleep anyway and wonder why the hell we're still going with no signs of slowing down.